Animal Activities
by Kim
My house loves animals. We love learning about them. So it is no wonder that the favorite show in our house is Wild Kratts on PBS. If you are not familiar with it I will give you a brief description. The Kratt brothers learn about different animals and how amazing they are by using their creature power suits. They push a button on the suit and touch that animal to essentially become that animal. They will talk about the neat things the animals do for the ecosystem, what amazing abilities they have, etc. They have been lions, cheetahs, honey badgers, and even made earthworms look cool.
So I made my son an easy version of a creature power suit. Now he can be just like the Wild Kratts!
You will need poster board (or card stock), markers, scissors, elastic, stapler, and self adhesive velcro.
First I took a small bowl and traced circles onto the posterboard. I had my son cut out the circles. I made 5 circles, but you can make however many you would like.
After he cut out the circles I had him write his name on one of the circles.
Then I asked him what animals he would like to become with his creature power suit. He was eager to draw each animal on their own circle.
While he was drawing, I cut a piece of elastic just a little bit over a yard (probably by about 4-5 inches). I tied the ends together in a knot.
I made the elastic loop into a figure 8 shape. Then I stapled the center where the elastic crosses over each other. You can hot glue or sew this, but I did stapling because it is easy, fast, and there is no hot things lying around for my kids to try to grab.
I took the circle with his name on it and stapled it to the crossover part I had just stapled. Then I put a piece of the rough/hard velcro in the middle of the circle.
Your power suit is complete. Just have your kids put an arm into each opening and make sure the name emblem is on their chest. It is easy for them to slide on and off by themselves.
Put a piece of the fluffy velcro on the back of each of the animal circles your child created. Now they can attach that animal to their power suit and become that animal!
We made a lion, “Jesus” lizard, Tasmanian devil, and a falcon emblem. Here is my son being a falcon. Doesn’t the puppy look impressed?
He ran through the house so fast that I couldn’t get a clear shot. 
We had fun talking about what those animals ate, where they lived, what they would be afraid of, and how they would talk and play with their friends. Man, I love little kids! This is a great activity/craft for learning about animals and using your imagination while getting the kids active.
Just so you know: The opinions about Wild Kratts is strictly my own and does not reflect any views Allie or No Time for Flash Cards may have regarding the show or PBS. This show is wildly popular at my house and this craft was a huge hit, so I thought I would share it with others. Neither this craft or this post was sponsored in any way. PBS and Wild Kratts have no idea who I am and never contacted me about this.
**If you do choose to use staples in this craft like I did, then you need to make sure the ends are curved in to ensure no scratching or cutting will occur. Obviously staples can be sharp and need to be used with caution. You can always use the alternatives mentioned in the post if you are uncomfortable using the staples.**
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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
Paper plates are a must have for any summer camp, preschool or even home craft supply closet. The endless possibilities of fun and educational crafts are well, endless. Here are some paper plate kids crafts we have done over the years. I hope that the extra plates from summer BBQ, church picnics and cookouts can be used to make something fun.
Paper Plate Turkey
Paper Plate Tadpole
Bunny crafts aren’t just for Easter time, toddlers and preschoolers readily identify with these animals because so much media is directed towards them with bunny themes: books, TV , even clothing for little ones often have fuzzy little bunnies on them. So grab some cotton balls and enjoy this activity from our contributing writer Katy.
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This is a great, easy activity that you can do with your child if they have the motor skills or you can create it and then share it with them if they don’t.
Book We Enjoyed
It’s Spring
If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen my tweet on Sunday that we found a snake in our backyard. My husband was mowing and saw it. As soon as my son woke from nap, all three of us went searching, and found it again. I love finding wild life in my backyard ( well when it’s small and non venomous anyway), it makes learning about a specific animal so much more fun . We immediately went online to find the exact species, what it ate and how big it would get. Sadly after nap yesterday my son wasn’t as into making his own snake as I guessed he’d be ( or at all), although he liked the snake book we read . Oh well I can’t win them all!
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 toilet paper rolls, or a paper towel roll cut in two, some sticky back foam, some jingle bells, googly eyes ,glue, scissors , a knee high or leg of panty hose , and a pipe cleaner.
- Start by having your child cut the sticky back foam into shapes. We are using up scraps so they were already in smaller pieces, if you have large sheets you may want to make it easier for your child by cutting them into strips that are easier to handle.
- Put the rolls inside the panty hose, along with the jingle bells.
- Tie the end.
- Peel off the backing and add the shapes. You can even fit in a patterning lesson if you want !
- Add the tongue . I threaded the pipe cleaner through then twisted it into the right length with a v on the end.
- Add glue for the eyes.
- Add eyes. Let dry.
Books
The Snake Is Totally Tail
The Greedy Python
Snake (Watch it Grow)
You May Also Like :
- Gather your materials. You will need some cardboard (cereal box), some markers, gold glitter paint , scissors and some thick ribbon.
- Start by cutting open your cereal box and drawing a diamond( or any shape you choose) on it.
- Have your child color the diamond with markers , we used markers because paint takes too long to dry and soaks into the paper , and crayons can make the glitter hard to stick .Write your puppy’s name on the tag if you want, this would be a great time to reinforce learning your phone number if your child is at that stage.
- Add some glitter !
Let dry. We wiped the glitter so it was thin and cut down drying time. - When dry cut out.
- Make two holes in each diamond with scissors.
- Thread some ribbon through.
- Tie them onto your puppies.
- Share your snack with a buddy !
Song
Um um
went the little brown dog one day
um um
went the little brown dog
um um
went the little brown dog one day
and they all went um um ah!
But we all know dogs go
la di da da da
la di da da da
la di da di da
we all know dogs go
la di da da da
they don’t go
um um ah!
Books !
“I Got Two Dogs” by John Lithgow will delight you. The book comes with a CD and I urge you to play it, hearing a book by the author is always amazing, but this song was thoroughly entertaining. As a dog lover who fondly remembers my childhood dog eating all the lasagnas at my first boy girl dinner party , I can relate to the naughty but lovable dogs. The message is about devotion and unconditional love and you don’t have to be a dog lover to get that.
“Otto Goes to Bed” by Todd Parr is a really fun and positive book. Otto is a dog who doesn’t want to go to bed, he wants to play, chase his tail and a bath and brushing teeth don’t help. Instead he figures out that there is something he likes about bedtime, dreaming! I like that this book addresses that going to bed feels like missing out on things for kids, I know I felt like that for years. Instead of blankly saying “Sleeping is great” or “You have to go to bed” this book finds something positive about going to bed . The illustration of Otto as a super hero dog makes my son howl with laughter every time.
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